Bob the Builder: Gold Fever
by J0hn D33r3
Summary: Facing financial ruin, Bob risks everything on mining gold to keep his crew and yard. Be ready for action, drama, and riches untold, because Bob and his team are down with gold fever! Note: there will be some nods to Discovery's Gold Rush in the coming chapters!
1. Bob's Big Gamble

Hard times had fallen on Bobsville. The economy was falling apart as people were leaving town to go and find jobs somewhere else. Bob, a local handyman, was hit particularly hard. With people leaving town, there were less people to do work for, and less money to be made. Bob was reading an article in the newspaper chronicling these events. He then looked at a stack of bills, saying he owed companies thousands of dollars. The recession depressed him and he was faced with a bitter pill to swallow as he contemplated selling his machines and yard. He went out to his machines, parked in the yard, awaiting a job. "Hi, Bob! Do you have any work for us to do?" Scoop, a yellow backhoe asked him. "I'm afraid not, Scoop. The recession means people are leaving town to find jobs somewhere else. There's less work to be done." Bob answered glumly.

"Maybe it'll get better." Roley, a green steamroller said.

"No, it won't, Roley. I'm sorry, gang, but I have to sell all of you and the yard to pay off all of my bills and debts." Bob said. The machines gasped. "I'm sorry. We had a good run. If there were any other way, I would, but there isn't."He said. Bob had some signs up reading, "For Sale" and "Machines for sale" on the wall outside the yard. A few people looked at them, but no one wanted to make an offer. Bob's mood was about to brighten when Wendy came to him with news while he was sitting in his office. "Bob, I've got great news!" Wendy said.

"What is it?" asked Bob. Wendy handed him a piece of paper. "Oh my! Gold prices are over $1,300 an ounce!"

"There aren't any gold deposits in Bobsville." Wendy said.

"I know. We'll have to get up all of our money and crew and go north, to Goldfields." Wendy was surprised at Bob's decision. He was good at building and fixing for neighbors, not mining gold. In fact, Bob had never held a gold pan in his life, but now was banking on mining enough to get out of debt and save his crew and yard. After completing a small job for Farmer Pickles, Scoop and Muck took Bob and Wendy to Larry Lancaster's Liquidation Lot.

"I'll call you on the talkie talkie channel when I'm ready, Scoop." Bob said.

"Okay, Bob!" Scoop said as he and Muck drove off.

"Here we are, Wendy, a liquidation yard. They'll have every kind of machine available, and cheap!" Bob said.

"Then let's get searching." Wendy said. Bob and Wendy entered the gates of the yard where they searched through ranks of machines, lined up like a vast army. They picked their way through bulldozers, backhoes, excavators, loaders, graders, dump trucks and all sorts of machines. He picked four machines, a yellow bulldozer, a grey and yellow front loader, an orange excavator, and a silvery grey articulated dump truck, all lined up in the very back corner of the yard. All four of them were decrepit, rusting, rotting, and falling apart. The yard manager, Larry Lancaster, came up to them and Bob asked him  
"What's the status of these four machines?"  
"These four. They're on the scrap list. They're due to be dragged off to the chop shop any day now. You're welcome to them, but you can't get any work done with a piece of junk like this."Larry grunted. Bob knew that he had to do something for the poor machines. He looked at their saddened faces, silently begging Bob not to turn a blind eye as they were due to be broken up for scrap.  
"I'll take them. All four." Bob said. Larry was surprised at Bob's decision. Bob shook on the purchase of the machines and he called in some trucks to help him haul them back to the yard. Packer and his friends Pacer, Piper, and Panther arrived, all pulling huge flatbed trailers. Bob asked the machines,  
"What's your names?"  
"I'm Brick." The bulldozer said.  
"I'm Clark." The loader introduced himself.  
"I'm Spade." The excavator said.  
"I'm Axel." said the dump truck.  
"I'm Bob, and I need you all to help me" Bob said. The flatbeds were ready as Bob and Wendy helped Brick, Clark, and Spade onto the trailers, with Axel being able to drive on his own. Next, Bob looked around the yard for another machine. He asked Larry, "Larry, do you have any mining machinery? Like a gold wash plant."

"Sure, sure. I've got all kinds of machines here." Larry replied. Bob then found an old wash plant sitting next to a shack filled with scrap metal.

"How about this wash plant, Larry?" Bob asked Larry. Larry looked at the wash plant, snoozing in the sun.

" Sifter? Sure. Have him." Larry said. Packer pulled in with his trailer and two loaders with forks in place of their buckets picked the wash plant up, waking him from his sleep.

"Whoa! I am floating!" he exclaimed as the two brutish loaders heaved him over to the trailer. Packer backed in and the loaders set him down.

"I did not like that!" Sifter said with relief as he was chained to the trailer.

"You'll be alright, old timer!" Bob reassured him. Packer blasted his horn, then Bob and Wendy got onto him. He lead the convoy on back to the yard, where the machines were still sitting idly.

"When is Bob going to be back, big banana?" Benny asked Scoop.

"I don't know." Scoop asked. Suddenly, horns were heard in the distance. Bob and his convoy had finally arrived at the yard. The machines were astounded as they saw what was arriving.

"Team I have a plan! Look over my shoulders. Look at all of this equipment. I am not going to just take this and let you or the yard be taken from me. Not without a fight. We are going to mine gold and get rich. This will make us or break us, but I'm telling you right now we are going to do this. This will be the day that we rise above the depression! CAN WE MINE IT?" He said.

" _ **YES WE CAN!**_ " The whole crew screamed in response. Their rallying cry was heard all across town. It even woke Travis the Tractor from his sleep. The new machines were unloaded and the rest of the town suddenly arrived at the yard! Mr. Bentley walked up to Bob and said,  
"Bob, we're here to help. We heard you. We believe in you." Bob then shed a tear, not of sadness, but of joy. With that, people pitched in to help Bob prepare for his epic adventure. Brick, Clark, Axel, Spade, and Sifter were all repainted and fixed up. Supplies such as a water pump, pipes, a gold cleaning table, tools, and food were prepared. After days of hard work, Bob and his crew were ready to go. Pilchard the cat hopped into Dizzy's mixing drum and Bird, Roley's friend hopped onto his cab. Bob and the crew said goodbye to their friends in Bobsville. Robert and Dot, Bob's parents, waved him off as Bob hopped onto Scoop. Bob held his head high and raised his hammer. He pointed to Scoop,  
"Let's go!" Scoop pulled out of the yard, with Wendy on Muck, then Lofty, Roley, Dizzy, Benny, Scrambler, with his trailer, then Axel, then Packer and the other semi trucks hauling Brick, Clark, Spade, and Sifter the wash plant. The whole town waved as Bob and his crew set off on their adventure, determined to return with riches untold...


	2. Golden Gates

Bob and his crew set out on their adventure to Goldfields. Their plan was to mine for gold and Bob could return home very rich. To get to Fixham Harbor in time, Bob and his team had to drive for over 14 hours. Along the way, Bob and Wendy, along with their cat, Pilchard and Roley's friend, Bird, stopped for some food and for the machines to rest at a truck stop. "This is great food, Wendy!" Bob said as he finished the last bites of his hamburger.

"We still need to get to Fixham Harbor, Bob. The ferry will be waiting for us." Wendy said.

"Right, Wendy." Bob said as he stood up from his seat in the diner. Wendy followed him outside to see the machines "Okay, gang, let's go!" Bob said.

"Wait, Bob! The tire on my trailer is flat!" said Panther, who was pulling Spade on his trailer. "Okay, we'll fix it." Bob said. Scoop, Muck, and Roley were all pulling a trailer with other items the team needed, like a generator, a water pump, tools, food, and other mining supplies, where Bob found an air compressor tank with a nozzle. Lofty lifted it out of Muck's dumper bed and set it down next to Panther's trailer. Bob lowered the ramps for Spade to back off, then, in a matter of minutes, the tire was refilled and the convoy was back on its way to Fixham Harbor. By morning, Bob and the team arrived at the harbor, where their ferry awaited them.

"All aboard, next stop, Goldfields!" a man shouted from the boat. "There's our boat!" Bob said. The machines made a mad dash for the ferry, and barely made it aboard. The horn sounded as the ship set sail from Fixham Harbor and off to Goldfields. The ship began its journey, and Bob and his team were hopeful, but stormy clouds appeared on the horizon. Thunder rumbled and lighting flashed.

"Oh my! I'm scared!" whimpered Lofty.

"We'll be fine, Lofty!" comforted Scoop.

"I don't know about that, big banana!" Benny said as he looked out to see multiple waves coming in.

"Brace for impact!" Exclaimed Muck as the wave crashed against the ship. It pitched and rolled in the squall as Bob and Wendy took cover.

"Scoop, you're in charge! Wendy and I are going to the wheelhouse where it's safe!" Bob shouted over the thunder and lightning.

"Okay, Bob!" Scoop said. "Everyone, stick together!" he said as he turned to the rest of the crew. They all braved the waves, but suddenly, water spilled over onto the deck, then, screaming was heard.

"HELP!" screamed Lofty. The force of the wave had pushed him back, breaking through the railing and his back wheels were dangling over the churning sea.

"I'll save you!" Spade said as he stretched out his arm, still parked on his trailer. "Get me some chains!" Spade shouted to Benny. The small digger rushed to the aft of the ship to find some chains, and he did, picking them up with his claw and dashing over to help Spade pull Lofty back onto the deck. In the wheelhouse, Wendy exclaimed, "Lofty is in trouble! We have to help him!" Bob said.

"I can't let you! It's too dangerous!" the captain grunted as he wrestled with the ship's helm. Bob needed to help his machine, but he couldn't. Back on deck, Spade heaved and hauled with all of his might, but Lofty was too heavy.

"I've got an idea! Lofty, stretch your hook out!" Scoop said. Lofty did as he said and hooked up to the railing on the other side of the ship. "Now, Spade, pull! PULL!" he shouted. The two machines pulled with all of their might, and in no time, Lofty was back on the deck.

"That was close!" said Lofty. By now, the sun had come out, and Bob and Wendy came down on the stairs "That was quite the rescue, Scoop!" Bob said.

"Yeah, thanks!" Lofty said, gratefully.

"Anything for a friend!" Scoop said. Within a few hours, Bob and crew finally arrived at the Goldfields port, where they were ready to get to their claim on a place named Diamond Creek. There, they unloaded from the ferry, where they convoy continued on its journey. They passed through the lonely forests on gravel roads, barely wide enough for the machines to pass through until they arrived at a very mucky part of the road.  
"Yippee! Mud! I love mud!" Muck cheered as she romped around in the mud, splashing dirty water on Scoop. Scoop playfully threw some back at her, then Benny got in on the fun and threw some at both of them.  
"Scoop! Muck! Benny! Stop! You'll get the equipment dirty!" Bob scolded them.  
"Sorry, Bob!" Muck apologized as they pressed on. Suddenly, at the back, Piper, pulling Brick, became bogged down.  
"Help!" he shouted. Bob signaled the others to halt as he went to take a look. Piper was bogged down to his fenders in sticky, black mud.  
"All that weight on your trailer is making you too heavy!"Bob said. He lowered the ramps for Brick to back off, then he hitched the heavy bulldozer up to Piper. Brick heaved with all of his might, his smokestack belching pitch black smoke into the air, only for him to become bogged down as well.  
"I'm stuck, Bob!" Brick called out. Bob was frustrated. He then had an idea.  
"Stay there, Brick, help is on the way!" Bob said as he lowered the ramps on Panther's trailer, allowing Spade to get off. The big excavator then crept and crawled his way into position, where he stretched his bucket out and flexed his grabber thumb out of the way, then he grabbed Brick's blade and pulled Brick out of the mud, who was able to rescue Piper in the process.  
"Great teamwork, gang. Now let's fix the road. Can we fix it?" Bob said.  
"Yes we can!" the machines enthusiastically responded. Scoop, Muck, Spade, and Axel gathered sand out of the hill, then spread it onto the ruts in the mud. Brick evened out the surface. Next, the team gathered stones from a dried up riverbed to keep the road from washing out, then Brick distributed them across the surface. Finally, Roley squished it all flat and the team was able to continue to the claim. After a few minutes of driving, they finally arrived at the claim. There, a man was waiting for them. He was the claim owner, Jerry Milgram, and a few of his machines were with him...


	3. X marks the Spot

Bob and Wendy walked up to Jerry. He was a stout, muscular man, with very tanned skin and gnarled, dirty hands. His eyes glinted through the shade of an I.S.M Mining cap. "Jerry." Bob said as he shook his hand.  
"Good to see you, Bob. You and your team look ready to mine." Jerry said in a coarse voice.  
"You wouldn't believe what we went through to get here. I wanted to talk details on the claim." Bob replied.  
"Alright. Here's a little something I've gotten off of it." Jerry said as he pulled out a jar about a third full of gold.  
"That's 45 ounces from a 150 yard run." he explained. Bob was impressed.  
"Okay, I'll take the claim." Bob said.  
" Sounds good. 5 Percent royalty and I expect a down payment of 25 ounces in two weeks." Jerry said. Bob suddenly realized that 25 ounces was a lot of gold.  
"You're not going to be disappointed." Bob said. Jerry then hopped onto his truck, Splatter and lead his team up to another mine of his, leaving Bob and his crew to themselves on the claim. Once they had unloaded, Bob addressed his machines "Okay, team, Scoop, Muck, Axel, Spade, and Brick, you're going to open a cut. Jerry marked the claim boundaries with red tape. Everyone else, we're going to set up camp. Can we build it?" said Bob.  
"Yes we can!" The crew replied, and they immediately set to work. Brick ripped up the ground with his ripper and shoved the dirt off to the side. Scoop loaded overburden into Muck, and Spade loaded Axel. The two dumped the overburden out of the way. Bob and the others were busy building a cabin, a shelter for the machines, and a shop nearby for their tools. Benny and Clark dug a foundation, while Dizzy mixed up concrete to pour. Roley flattened the concrete out, then Bob and Wendy cut down trees to make the cabin and shack with as well as firewood. Benny, Lofty, and Clark hauled the logs to the cabin, where Lofty hoisted them into place and Bob drilled holes into them. He then inserted bolts in the holes and screwed them together with his screw gun. Meanwhile, Wendy was at work on a shack to store their supplies in. Benny dug a U shape in the ground dug out a spot of land and brought in unused logs for Wendy to cut into halves, then he held them in place while Dizzy poured concrete into the trench. Once that was accomplished, Bob had finished framing up the cabin and came to help Wendy with the shack. They nailed boards to the wall of logs, three of them, three feet apart, then Bob cut out a hole with his chainsaw for a door and two windows, one on each side. There were only three walls in the shack to make it easier to get to their tools. Later, Bob and Clark moved in the gold table.  
"What does this thing do, Bob?" Clark asked.  
"This is the gold table, Clark. Once we hit dirt with gold in it, Axel will carry it to Sifter. You'll load it into Sifter, and what he'll do is with his shaker deck, he'll shake the fine materials off of the gold and the sluices will catch it because gold is heavier than water, 18 times more so, in fact."

"Wow." Clark said with amazement. Meanwhile, in the cut, there was trouble. The diggers were almost halfway into the cut when Spade was digging with his bucket and he heard a crunch. He looked down and saw that the ground was frozen. Scoop, Muck and Brick hit frozen dirt, too. He radioed Bob for help.

"Bob, there's a problem in the cut. The ground is frozen." Scoop said. Three hundred yards uphill, Bob replied,

"Okay, Scoop, I'm on my way." He turned to Clark and said, "I have to go, Clark, there's trouble in the cut!" Scrambler pulled up and Bob hopped on. The small quadbike zipped and zoomed down the hill to the cut. There Scoop and the diggers were in dismay. The ground was too hard to dig. "This is quite the dilemma, Scoop." Bob said. He tried to think of a way to help his crew. If they could not get down to pay dirt, then they would have no chance of meeting claim owner Jerry's deadline and would have to leave.

"Just try and get as much dirt as you can out of it. We need to get to pay dirt, quickly!" Bob said.

"No prob, Bob!" Muck said enthusiastically. The diggers worked as hard as they could to dig out the frozen dirt, but then, storm clouds gathered. Lighting flashed as the machines were excavating. Thunder rumbled and Bob radioed them,

"Get back up to camp, team! The weather looks bad!"

"We're on the way!" Scoop said as he and the diggers retreated out of the cut and up to camp. The machines gathered under their makeshift shelter while Bob and Wendy get into a tent they had pitched while their cabin was being built. The storm continued into the night. The next morning, the team got back to work. Once again, there was trouble in the cut. After the rain, the cut was a mucky, muddy mess. Brick shoved the overburden out of the way, but most of it went right around his blade because it was very wet. He was backing up when he suddenly began to slide.  
"Whoa!" he exclaimed, then with a loud crash he slid into a mud hole. He tried to drive out, but he was stuck.  
"Spade! Spade! I need some help!" he shouted across the cut. Spade finished dumping a bucket of overburden into Axel when he saw his friend stranded in the mud. Spade rushed over to help as he extended his bucket out and quickly helped Brick out of the mud. Spade felt of the material with his bucket as he chuckled.  
"First it was too hard, now it's too soft!" Suddenly, he heard a crunch. He pulled his bucket out of the hole, expecting more frozen overburden, but he was shocked to see chunky bedrock. Scoop came over to see what was the matter and he saw Spade's bucket full of bedrock. He immediately radioed Bob.  
"Bob! We've hit bedrock!" Up the hill, Bob was at work when he replied,  
"I'm on the way. Wendy, hand me a gold pan!" he said. Wendy gave him a pan and Bob hopped onto Scrambler, who spirited him into the cut. Once there, Bob gathered a handful of dirt and panned it. In mere seconds, lines of fine gold appeared in the pan.  
"Wow!" Scrambler said with excitement. Bob said to Scoop,  
"Okay, Scoop, start stockpiling this pay dirt!"  
"We're on it!" Scoop said. He took a bucket full of dirt and loaded it into Muck, then Spade shoveled pay into Axel's dumper bed. He blew his horn with excitement,  
"First load of pay dirt from Diamond Creek!" and chugged up the hill. Up the hill, Wendy marked off the spot to dump pay dirt at, and Axel raised his dumper bed. Muck followed with another load of pay dirt, and the stockpile began to grow with each passing hour.


	4. On the Gold

Bob and his team were now at work excavating a streak of pay dirt in their cut. Their claim owner, Jerry Milgram, had set them a 25 ounce, $33,000 goal and had two weeks to get it, and now that they had struck pay dirt, the team was racing to get Sifter ready to run the dirt. Muck and Axel were busily trucking the pay dirt 300 yards up the hill to the stockpile. Scoop and Spade were busy as well, digging the pay dirt out of the ground. It was mainly large chunks of rock with sharp corners and some rounded stones, but the most important was the dirt, with possibly thousands of dollars in gold waiting to be processed. As they hauled pay up to the plant, they were beginning to lose footing. Muck was coming up the hill when she began slipping on the road, still wet from rains.  
"Whoa!" she exclaimed. Axel saw this and he turned around to go and check.  
"Are you alright, Muck?" he asked her.  
"I'm alright, Axel. The road is just really slippery!" replied Muck  
"I know. Even with my six wheel drive I'm slipping, too. Here's an idea. I'll give you a push to get up the hill." Axel said.  
"Okay, Axel!" Muck said. Axel got behind Muck and the two began the ascent up the nearly 20 degree incline. About a third of the way there, Axel began to slip, meaning Muck started slipping, too. They both slid all the way to the bottom of the hill. Bob rode down on Scrambler to see what was the matter.  
"What's going on? There hasn't been a load of pay to the stockpile yet!" he scolded them.  
"That haul road is too slippery, Bob. We were already having to fight the incline. Now the rain's made it wet and we can't get the pay to the plant. We need a new road if there's any chance of us being able to get the enough pay to the stockpile and get sluicing." Axel explained.  
"I see. I'll get the others." Bob said. At lunchtime, Bob gathered the crew up for a meeting. After finishing a sandwich, he addressed the crew.  
"Team, it's come to my attention that we need to build a new haul road up to the pay pile. Even when we get ready to sluice, we'll run out of pay dirt because we can't get it up there. Here's what I've come up with." he explained. Bob and Wendy showed the crew the plans to replace the old road, a straight incline up the hill to the pay pile, with a road that hugged the curves of the hill. " First, Brick, you'll cut out a path in the hill. Scoop, Muck, Axel, you'll haul overburden in to build the basis of the road. Clark, you'll bring up stones from the riverbed to lay on top of the overburden. That'll keep it from washing away. Dizzy and Benny, you'll help me build a barrier on the side to keep everyone safe. Can we build it?" Bob said.  
"Yes we can!" The machines said as they got to work. Clark cut out the path in the hill to begin the road building process. Scoop, Muck, and Axel dug overburden out to put down as the foundation of the road. Next, Clark dumped loads of stones out to keep the rocks from washing away. Once the road was done, Benny dug small holes with his backhoe, where Bob drove metal posts into the ground, which Dizzy secured with concrete, and when that was finished, the barrier was completed for the road and Muck and Axel got back to work hauling pay dirt out of the cut. Bob looked at Sifter, sitting idly in the yard.  
"When are we going to start sluicing, Bob?" He asked.  
"Well, we about have enough pay dirt. If you're ready, I guess we can get set up. Clark, how many yards of pay dirt have we stockpiled?" Bob asked Clark.  
"I'd guess about 12,000 yards, Bob." Clark replied.  
"Okay, we're going to get ready to sluice. All machines, report to the yard. We're going to get Sifter ready to run." Bob radioed the crew. The team stopped what they were doing and converged on the yard. There, Bob filled them in on the plan.  
Spade, Clark, get around bot sides of Sifter." he instructed the two as he hooked chains to them, then chained them up to Sifter. "Heave!" He said. The two slowly hoisted Sifter off the ground and began moving him to the pad Brick and Scoop were preparing.  
"Easy there, fellas!" Sifter said, nervously. Spade set his end down, but Clark was slower, causing his back wheels to raise into the air.  
"Whoa!" Bob exclaimed. Clark let his arms down and he was back upright, then he went to Scrambler, "Let's get this pump in place, Scrambler. I'll need your help, Scoop." Bob told the two. He hopped on Scrambler, then hitched him up to the pump and they drove down to the creek.  
"Scoop, place this siphon down in the water." Scoop took the siphon and placed it in the creek. Bob and the two then went back up the hill to fetch the pipes. He pulled out rolls of orange lay-flat piping and loaded them into Scoop's bucket. They returned to the pump and Bob connected the pipes to the manifold, then he connected each length of pipe together until he got to Sifter, where he then connected it to the bypass valve, then to the main water lines. Everything was now ready. Bob had poured thousands of dollars into this very moment. He called out,  
"Okay, Sifter, start shaking!" Sifter's shaker deck rattled and clattered to life, his spray bars blasted water, then his feeder conveyor belt began to turn. "Add some dirt, Clark!" he shouted to Clark. The big loader responded as he scooped out pay dirt from the stockpile and loaded it into the hopper. It then fed into the prewash, where jets of water blasted the dirt and fine gold off of the rocks, which then went down to the shaker deck, which screened the material out for any other fine materials, which finally went into two chutes and into the sluice boxes, while the worthless coarse tailings slid down into a pile. The machines cheered as their gold mining operation was finally coming to life. Bob hugged Wendy, passionately, nearly crying with tears of joy. His dream of saving his family was becoming reality...


End file.
